Autonomous Granular Materials in Architecture (AGMA)
The project "Autonomous Granular Materials in Architecture" (AGMA) will investigate the use of autonomously shape-changing particles in a granular material for architectural structures. Granular materials are systems with high particle numbers in which the individual particles are not firmly bound to each other, but are only in loose frictional contact. Since these materials are not bound, they can be reconfigured and completely recycled. In a designed granular material the individual particles are defined in their geometry and materiality. This allows to calibrate the behaviour of the overall granular material through the particle design. Going even further, autonomously shape-changing particles can independently transform themselves into different basic geometric types and thus generate different architectural properties of the entire granular material.
PROJECT TEAM
Institute for Computational Design and Construction, University of Stuttgart
Dr.-Ing. Karola Dierichs (PI)
Denitsa Koleva (Scientific Assistant)
Jaeger Lab, University of Chicago
Prof. Heinrich M. Jaeger, PhD
Institute for Multiscale Simulation, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
Prof. Dr. Thorsten Pöschel
PROJECT FUNDING
Terra Incognita, University of Stuttgart